Wealthy Thought Leader 2010: Almost Like Being There “Live Via Video”

As the audience settled into their seats in Vancouver last week for the first day of Andrea J. Lee’s three-day coaching event, “Wealthy Thought Leader,” Dr. Sarah Farrant was watching from her seat—7,000 miles away.

“To have myself sitting half way around the world – on a remote island off the coast of New Zealand listening to people in Canada in real time was a thrill to be apart of,” said Farrant, who not only watched the sessions as they happened, but interacted with family members, an online coach and other virtual attendees around the world.

“The virtual world of seminars was a first for me – a WHOLE new experience. I had my eldest son listening in at times so this was a great tool to educate him with; I was home with my husband to converse the points I connected with; I had a live coach online to bounce suggestions off or make comments to; I had the opportunity to have a question asked if I so desired; there was also a forum to connect with other virtual attendees, and admittedly on two of the days I didn’t get out of my pajamas until after lunch,” she said. “I had everything the other participants had except for the physical presence of the presenters.”

The technology that made it all happen was not lost on those who made the trip to Vancouver.

“It was amazing to know that there were people in twelve different countries who joined us in their pajamas,” said coach Nicola Bird, who was at Wealthy Thought Leader in person. “One of the things Andrea impressed on us at the event was about how important it is to be innovative to stand out from the crowd. And she put her money where her mouth was and created a whole community of people who were able to access her event live-via-video.”

“I think there is always someone ahead of the pack in terms of finding new and innovative ways of doing something,” said Devon Vaughn, Chief Information Officer at Liquid Broadcast, the Colorado company that brought Lee’s event live from Canada to the world. “As this is just now becoming a new way of delivering content and hosting live events. I would have to say the (Andrea) is a tech trendsetter. There are just not many people out there utilizing the internet to host live events.”

Vaughn says the numbers remain small, but they jumped over the last twelve months, and he expects “live via video” to be an increasingly common option for coaching conferences and teaching events. “With higher bandwidth being delivered to more houses in America and video compression technology changing on a daily basis, I think this trend is only going to grow.”

“I view video in combination with live events as a natural evolution in the conference business,” said Pamela Slim, a corporate coach who participated in the Wealthy Thought Leader event. “Seeing the connection we were able to have with the remote participants and the remote participants were able to have with those of us live at the event (via Twitter and the Ning community) was very exciting.”

The technology of getting a live image from anyplace where there’s internet or cell service to anyplace a person’s got a computer and an internet connection’s not complicated. You can do it with your iPhone. The trick, the experts say, is making the experience deeper and richer than simply hooking up a camera and pointing it at a conference speaker.

“Be sure to have people dedicated to making the ‘LVVers’ feel like they are part of the in person conference community,” says Sandra De Freitas, a tech coach who attended the conference the old fashioned way—in person. “Allow them to communicate via forums, live chat rooms, Facebook and of course Twitter! Technology allows us to be social on and offline so don’t forget to blend the two for your conference participants. The blend will allow them to choose which platform(s) works best for their style and needs.”

And those were the exact features that Andrea Lee insisted on for her remote participants, making sure that people watching from home got PDF files of anything that was handed out in the conference room in Vancouver, and that questions sent via Twitter were answered. Coaches were also dedicated to ensure that questions and concerns the LVV attendees had were addressed.

“Andrea is the thought leader of thought leaders,” said De Freitas. “She surprised us with a number twists and spins on traditional boring conference stuff and kept us on our toes.”

What’s your take on attending a training seminar or coaching conference from your home?

Is there a need to interact face to face and network? Or can a live simulcast and dedicated Twitter channel come close to the same experience?

Note: In 2008, Andrea J. Lee was the architect of the Coaching Commons. Sandra De Freitas provides the Coaching Commons technical support.